CHAPTER III 

 LAND 



Saturday, December 31. New Year's Eve. — Obs. 72"^ 54' 

 S., 174° 55' E. Made good S. 45 W. 55'; C. Crozier S. 17 W. 

 286'. — ' The New Year's Eve found us in the Ross Sea, but 

 not at the end of our misfortunes.' We had a horrible night. 

 In the first watch we kept away 2 points and set fore and aft 

 sail. It did not increase our comfort but gave us greater speed. 

 The night dragged slowly through. I could not sleep thinking 

 of the sore strait for our wretched ponies. In the morning 

 watch the wind and sea increased and the outlook was very dis- 

 tressing, but at six ice was sighted ahead. Under ordinary con- 

 ditions the safe course would have been to go about and stand 

 to the east. But in our case we must risk trouble to get smoother 

 water for the ponies. We passed a stream of ice over which 

 the sea was breaking heavily and one realised the danger of 

 being amongst loose floes in such a sea. But soon we came to 

 a compacter body of floes, and running behind this we were 

 agreeably surprised to find comparatively smooth water. We 

 ran on for a bit, then stopped and lay to. Now we are lying 

 in a sort of ice bay — there is a mile or so of pack to windward, 

 and two horns which form the bay embracing us. The sea is 

 damped down to a gentle swell, although the wind is as strong 

 as ever. As a result we are lying very comfortably. The ice 

 is drifting a little faster than the ship so that we hav^e occa- 

 sionally to steam slowly to leeward. 



So far so good. From a dangerous position we have 

 achieved one which only directly involved a Vv^aste of coal. 

 The question is, which will last longest, the gale or our tem- 

 porary shelter? 



Rennick has just obtained a sounding of 187 fathoms; taken 

 in conjunction with yesterday's 1 1 1 1 fathoms and Ross's sound- 

 ing of 180, this is interesting, showing the rapid gradient of the 



